[News] Bolivia's Social Movements Unite

[News at freedomarchives.org]

TWO ARTICLES

All of Bolivia's Social Movements Unite: Reality Changes Once Again

http://narcosphere.narconews.com/story/2005/3/9/13539/63259

By <http://narcosphere.narconews.com/story/2005/3/9/13539//user/uid:88>Luis 
Gomez,
Posted on Wed Mar 9th, 2005 at 01:53:09 PM EST
Good day, kind readers, this morning the landscape has changed and there is 
a new story to tell. The social movements in Bolivia, ALL of them, have 
united to coordinate their efforts, to organize more demonstrations and 
fight against the new (or recycled) right wing that just last night gave 
more power to the administration of President Carlos Mesa. Let’s take a 
look at this immediate history


It was just after 9 in the morning, and about one hundred social movement 
representatives and journalists were crammed into the small auditorium of 
the Central Obrera Boliviana (the legendary COB, Bolivian Workers’ 
Federation). A dozen people sat up front, full of enthusiasm. Take a look 
at the attendance list, because this phenomenon is nearly unknown in the 
country’s recent history:
    * Evo Morales, congressman from the Movement Towards Socialism (MAS) 
party, and coca-growers’ leader from the Chapare region.
    * Felipe Quispe, el Mallku (the Condor) of the Aymara nation and 
outgoing executive secretary of the Bolivian Farmworkers’ Federation (CSUTCB).
    * Jaime Solares, executive secretary of the COB.
    * Roberto de la Cruz, El Alto city councilor, Aymara, known for his 
participation in the uprising of October, 2003.
    * The leaders of the Bolivian Landless Movement (MST).
    * Román Loayza, alternate senator for the MAS and parallell CSUTCB 
which answers to Evo’s party.
    * Enrique Mariaca, an engineer from the Committee for the Defense of 
National Patrimony
    * Former police official David Vargas, one of the leaders of the 
so-called <http://narconews.com/Issue28/article616.html>Black Februray 
(2003) when the people revolted against a tax increase from Sánchez de 
Lozada (at the request of the IMF).
    * A bit later, Abel Mamani, well-known president of the Federation of 
Neighborhood Committees, arrived in high spirits.
    * In Cochabamba, Oscar Olivera, of the Coordinating Committee for the 
Defense of Gas and Water, and Omar Fernández, leader of the Bolivian 
irrigating peasant-farmers.
And there were more, of all colors, from all over the country, protesting 
Carlos Mesa, who was ratified as president: the purpose of his blackmailing 
resignation, in reality, was to pressure the Bolivian people into a step 
back in what they were demanding and achieving in the streets, above all on 
hydrocarbons (but also on water, on justice for the massacres of 2003, on 
everything they are lacking and the justice they deserve).

The new alliance, which revives an entity known as the Estado Mayor del 
Pueblo (loosely translated as the People’s General Staff, founded in 2001), 
has begin to guide the people in resistance against the coalition of 
political parties and the government, which seeks to restrain the social 
mobilizations.

In his front-line trench, Mesa gave a press conference at 10 am. The event 
reprised the points from his speech last night before the National 
Congress: to retake his government agenda, this time together with the 
traditional political parties, and not to permit any more social 
mobilizations.

Mesa has asked the people to demonstrate at noon tomorrow, in all the 
plazas of Bolivia, against the blockades and marches.

But there was something new as well


As some sectors of El Alto have remained firm in their blockades demanding 
the exit of the multinational Suez corporation from the administration of 
their water services, as the coca growers continue blockading the main 
highway in the Chapare, as many people have refused to abandon their 
demands just because Carlos Mesa demands it in order to govern, President 
Mesa threatened to bring all the blockaders and marchers to justice. That 
is, apply the law as always: against the poor and working people of this 
country.

The apparent defeat of the social movements last night was not conclusive. 
The political class’ rallying behind President Mesa has provoked the social 
movements and leaders to rally themselves in response. We still don’t know 
what dimension this might take on for the people, but we know that, for the 
moment, this new stage of the conflict as not over yet.

Between Conspiracies and Mesa's Apologies: The Movements Begin to Radicalize

http://narcosphere.narconews.com/story/2005/3/10/5230/00694
By <http://narcosphere.narconews.com/story/2005/3/10/5230//user/uid:88>Luis 
Gomez,
Posted on Thu Mar 10th, 2005 at 05:02:30 AM EST
For the rest of the day (Wed, March 10), the Bolivian social leaders, 
united in a new mobilization pact, held meetings in La Paz, El Alto, and 
Cochabamba. In Santa Cruz, where the peasant farmers of Yapacani, in the 
north, have maintained a blockade of the entire area, there have already 
been conflicts in the city: the bus drivers, in response to the rise in 
fuel prices, have begun a blockade and were brutally repressed at midday.

For its part, Carlos Mesa’s government now has a ministerial resolution to 
criminalize the protests, and hopes with this to leave everything in the 
hands of the attorney general, which arresting demonstrators and blockaders 
as if they were criminals
 ah, and Mesa is asking forgiveness from Evo
 
let’s take a look at the immediate history.

At noon, the bus drivers in the city of Santa Cruz set up a blockade in one 
of the city’s most important areas. They were brutally repressed by the 
police, and 80 drivers are in jail. Earlier this evening, 800 drivers, 
carrying torches and banners surrounded the main Santa Cruz police barracks 
and demanded freedom for their comrades. With these actions, the upheaval 
has reached Bolivia’s elite city of the so-called “Cambas,” despite the 
fact that they were not coordinated with the country’s other mobilizations.

Meanwhile, in the eastern rural areas, the peasant-farmers of Yapacaní have 
been maintaining a total blockade of the roads for days. Added to this is 
are the blockades in the Chapare, in the highway that unites La Paz, 
Cochabamba, and Santa Cruz


In Cochabamba, the social forces met up this afternoon, with Oscar Olivera 
taking the lead, to radicalize the blockades installed since Monday. Some 
of the neighborhood leaders of El Alto attended this meeting, as part of 
the <http://narcosphere.narconews.com/story/2005/3/9/13539/63259>new 
popular alliance, to begin coordinating mobilizations and strengthen the 
existing ones. The main roads leading out of Cochabamba are blocked and 
mobilizations in the streets are expected to begin tomorrow.

In El Alto, the main organizations (the merchants, the university students, 
the women, and others) have met with Abel Mamani, president of the 
Federation of El Alto Neighborhood Committees, to coordinate their efforts. 
The people of El Alto will go back to their blockades and mobilizations in 
a staggered plan: every day different districts and sectors will be closed, 
until the city is finally in a state of general strike.

Don’t forget that districts 7 and 8, which make up the western edge of El 
Alto, have maintained their blockades in all streets and avenues. Despite 
the differences that have come up with the Fejuve leadership, the people of 
these neighborhoods hope that the El Alto mobilization will come back into 
focus.

Members of the National Councils of Markas and Ayllus of Qollasuyu, an 
organization based in the southern Potosí department, also arrived in La 
Paz today. Their march, which paralyzed downtown La Paz for two hours, 
arrived at the offices of the Defender of the People (the national 
ombudsman) demanding a hydrocarbons law in accordance with the aspirations 
of the Bolivian people, the organization of the Constituents’ Assembly, and 
the exit of the French-based multinational Suez corporation from the city 
of El Alto


Criminalizing Protest

The Carlos Mesa administration continues insisting on its “citizen” 
gathering for tomorrow at noon, in all the country’s plazas, to reject the 
blockades and other demonstrations
 this call to the “silent majority” 
(otherwise known as the middle class) could generate a few confrontations.

In any event, Mesa said asked that Evo Morales forgive him if he “offended” 
Evo with his accusations. Evo responded simply that if Mesa wants to 
debate, let him set the time, the date, and the place
 but this time he 
will have to face the nation, by himself.

At the same time, the government’s moves to criminalize the social 
movements by penalizing their protests have continued. Vice Minister of 
Justice Carlos Alarcón is now working on a ministerial resolution to send 
to Attorney General Pedro Gareca. In that document, Mesa and his cabinet 
press Gareca to personally assume command of the Public Ministry and go out 
into the streets to remove the blockades, imprison the people and begin 
bringing charges against them. More than one media outlet has noted the 
similarity between this action and actions Sánchez de Lozada took during 
the insurrection of October 2003.

Everyone is moving their cards around. Chamber of Deputies President Mario 
Cosío (of Gonzalo Sánchez de Lozada’s Nationalist Revolutionary Movement), 
said in a press conference this afternoon that modifications to the new 
hydrocarbons law would be approved in the Senate. These mean above all 
stepping back on all the “delicate” issues for the transnational oil 
companies, like the so-called “indigenous veto” which obliges the companies 
to consult native peoples about the possibility of exploring or exploiting 
the hydrocarbons in their areas
 and important principle, if we consider 
that a good part of the known gas reserves, for example, lie in indigenous 
Guaraní territory.

There are strong rumors about a state of siege being announced, but the 
atmosphere in the streets of El Alto and La Paz Is of a tense normality.

And so, this is not over, the mobilizations keep growing and linking up and 
coordinating between each other
 and Mesa, it is now clear, made a poker 
play that seemed like a winning one yesterday and today, looking at recent 
events, could end up taking him out of the game.

Tomorrow we will continue this coverage
 don’t turn off your monitors, 
because much is yet to happen in the Andes.



The Freedom Archives
522 Valencia Street
San Francisco, CA 94110
(415) 863-9977
www.freedomarchives.org 
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://freedomarchives.org/pipermail/news_freedomarchives.org/attachments/20050310/8da783df/attachment.htm>